Acts of Courage
by Quadhelix
Summary: People are defined, not by strength, knowledge, or wealth, but rather by the choices that they make. The future is a fragile thing, and can often be changed, for better or worse, by a single act of courage.


Disclaimer: This disclaimer has no legal weight whatsoever, and everyone knows that I don't own _Naruto_, so why bother with this? Troublesome…

Confession

There are two views to the world. One view, the view that adheres to the existence of "Destiny," holds that the future is written in stone, that the past that was inevitably leads to the future that will be. There is some merit to this view. Billions of people live out their lives will little to no effect on their society, save in an aggregate sense. The forces that run through society are too strong for any one person to circumvent. No one person can change the world.

Physics disagrees.

Chaos Theory is built around the idea that small changes in the setup of a problem can cause substantial changes in the result. This idea is exemplified in what is known as "The Butterfly Effect": a butterfly, flapping its wings in China, can create small ripples in the air currents that can, over time, alter weather patterns in the United States. This effect is not unique to butterflies.

Whether the effects will be good or bad is completely independent of the nature of the action itself. The butterfly, innocently flapping its wings with no care beyond finding a source of tasty nectar, can call down devastating hurricanes or deadly tornados with the same ease as it can banish them. An off-hand complement to a passing stranger might give him the resolve to go home and murder his family. A vicious insult could delay a person from the car ride that would have otherwise ended his or her life. Such is the nature of Chaos: good can lead to evil; evil can lead to good.

Small changes can make a difference. A tiny change in a single variable can cascade to an entirely different outcome. Small actions can have large effects.

* * *

Uzumaki Naruto, newly instated ninja of Konoha, the Village Hidden in the Leaves, had a secret. He had only just learned this, but it remained true. He was the jailer of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the "Nine-tailed Fox," that had attacked his home village twelve years prior. The Nine-tailed Fox had wrought immense destruction on the village, shattering families and destroying dreams, before it was stopped by the sacrifice of Konoha's beloved leader, Namikaze Minato, the forth bearer of the title "Hokage."

Naruto had been an outcast his entire life because of his association with the tragedy. Although most recognized that Naruto was not "the Fox," many almost wished that he were. After all, if Naruto were the Kyuubi no Kitsune, they could kill him without remorse. As things were, many villagers could not help but see Naruto as a reminder of all that they had lost that night: family and friends, hopes and dreams. They hated Naruto for reminding them, and hated him even more for the guilt they felt for hating an innocent boy. A vicious cycle: hate begging guilt, guilt begging hate, and so forth.

When the truth of the matter had become apparent, the village's leader, the Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen, had passed a law prohibiting adults from telling the children of the village about Naruto's history. The damage, however, was already done: parents shape the minds of their children, and no law can tell a person not to hate. Thus, Naruto was condemned to a loneliness worse than even the loneliness of complete isolation: surrounded by people, Naruto was completely alone. Like Tantalus or the Ancient Mariner, Naruto was faced with the agony of being in the midst of that which he desired but could not have: "Water, water, everywhere/and all the boards did shrink/water, water, everywhere/and not a drop to drink."

Even so, Naruto had not been completely alone. His teacher, Umino Iruka, had eventually made friends with Naruto, becoming something of the older brother that the boy had never had. Although Iruka was strict with Naruto's grades, Naruto knew that it was out of duty, not malice, that Iruka gave him such a hard time about his grades.

As Naruto looked over the village from the top of the Hokage monument, he could not help but reflect on the certainty of "Iruka-sensei's" friendship. Iruka had, not hours before, taken a hit from a large shuriken meant for Naruto. If Naruto had been unsure of how important he was to Iruka, his uncertainty had been banished by that single act.

However, the more Naruto thought about Iruka's act, the tighter the knot in his stomach got. Naruto was having difficulty pinpointing the source of his unease. After all, Iruka was not seriously injured and Naruto finally had proof that his existence was valued, that his life meant something to someone. He was completely baffled as to what the problem was. The source his anxiety was a complete mystery to him.

In another world, Naruto dismissed his concerns, moved on with his life, and eventually became a great and respected ninja.

This Naruto, however, chose to think a little bit more deeply about the problem. Iruka had taken an attack meant for Naruto. Although Iruka's Chunin vest had absorbed most of the blow, Naruto considered the possibility that he was concerned about the possibility that, had things gone differently, Iruka could have been more seriously injured. This seemed to strike a chord in Naruto's mind.

After ruminating on the issue for the better part of a day, Naruto finally reached a conclusion. As much as he disliked what he had realized, he knew that he could not become a ninja as long as the issue went unaddressed.

* * *

It was the day of Ninja Orientation, and all of the recently graduated ninja Academy students were excited to see who their teammates would be. Some of the girls, like the pink-hair Haruno Sakura or the mind-walker Yamanaka Ino, hoped to be placed on the team of their crush Uchiha Sasuke, the top student of the class. One girl, the pale-eyed Hyuuga Hinata, hope to be placed on the same team as _her_ crush, who was certainly not an Uchiha, but was very near him in the phone book.

Others hoped, more reasonably, to be placed on a team with good friends or with those with skills that complemented their own. For example, Akimichi Choji hoped to be placed on the same team as his friend Nara Shikimaru, mostly due to their longstanding friendship, but would justify this desire with the fact that Shikimaru's "Shadow Imitation" jutsu complemented his own "Human Bullet Tank" jutsu extremely well.

One graduate, however, was not concerned at all about who was going to be on his team. His thoughts were too heavily occupied with the task before him. He was well and truly scarred. More scarred, in fact, than when he was being hunted by a psychotic Chunin intent on killing him and stealing the scroll that he had been carrying. His hands were shaking, and he realized that he was having trouble breathing. Doubts began creeping up through the back of his mind, wondering if maybe he should put off his task to another time.

'No. I won't back down. I can't afford to. Too much is riding on this.'

Taking a deep, calming breath, he forced himself to calm down and wait for "Iruka-sensei" to arrive. Rather than enter the classroom, he waited out in the hall, so that he could talk privately. He wasn't sure if he was making the right decision, and wanted as much guidance as he could get before he did anything irrevocable. He barely noticed the odd stares that he got from his classmates as they entered the room.

Sparing a glance into the classroom, he was mildly annoyed to notice that Sakura had sat near Sasuke, and was beaming at her "rival" Ino. Naruto almost allowed himself to feel a bit of jealousy for the Uchiha, but set it aside. He had a mission to fulfill and nothing was going to distract him from it.

Soon enough, Iruka arrived and noticed Naruto standing outside the classroom. His curiosity piqued, he asked Naruto what was he wanted.

"Ne, Iruka-sensei. Would it be a problem if I made an announcement before things got under way?"

"What sort of announcement?"

"I was wondering if it would be okay if told everyone about…" Naruto's eyes flicked downward meaningfully, "…you know."

Iruka's eyebrows shot up.

"You want to tell them?"

"Yeah. After what happened with Mizuki, when you took that shuriken for me, I realized: one day, one of them-" Naruto swung his head toward the classroom to indicate whom he meant, "-may have to decide whether to save my life or their own. If they died because they didn't know about it…"

"That's very mature of you. However, it is a big risk: you could alienate a lot of your classmates by telling them about it. Are you sure you want to risk that?"

"Yes."

"Okay then…"

Iruka lead Naruto into the classroom, bringing him to the front of the class to stand beside him.

"Hey, Iruka-sensei, what's that dropout doing here?"

"Naruto managed to complete a makeup exercise the night after the graduation. He managed to learn a Jonin-level variant of the Clone technique and complete a simulated C-Rank mission."

The majority of Naruto's former classmates stared at him in something akin to awe. In response, Naruto just grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. He still had to tell them the really important part."

"Ne, Iruka-sensei, don't you think that we should tell them, you know…"

"Go ahead."

Naruto suddenly felt the eyes of the entire graduating class upon him. Stealing his nerves, he began to speak.

"Well, I recently found out something really important about myself, something really, really big. From now on, we're all going to be serving together as Shinobi of the Leaf, so I feel that it is only right that you know too."

"We've all been told that, twelve years ago, the Forth Hokage killed the Kyuubi no Kitsune at the cost of his life. As it turns out, that is only half true. He did defeat it at the cost of his life…but it wasn't killed. It was sealed away. It was sealed…into me."

There was a collective gasp from the class as they all stared at the boy before them. This boy who had been the dead last, the failure, contained within him the monster that had ravaged their village? They all looked to Iruka-sensei, waiting for him to rebuke Naruto for lying. He didn't.

"I consider it _an honor_ that the Forth Hokage chose me for this. But that is not important. What is important, it's the lesson I learned. One day, we may have to put our lives on the line to save one another. I've grown up hated for what's in me, so I wanted you to know in case…in case it made me…not worth the risk of saving. So that, if the time came, you wouldn't give you life for a lie.

"Thank you for hearing me out."

With that, Naruto thanked Iruka and moved to take a seat…

* * *

The world changed.

* * *

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Author's Note (added 3/2/09): This story is intended to be a collection of Divergence/AU oneshots that, as the title suggests, focus on the characters behaving in a particularly brave or virtuous manner. Although I have only one up right now, I hope to eventually add more.

I had many sources of inspiration for this story, but would especially like to point out _One Small Step_ by Shawny Wong and _The Will Born in Fire_ by EdStargazer. I would also like to appologize for not creditting their wonderful stories earlier (I had started to write an Author's Note for the original post, but encountered formating problems and forgot why i was writing it).


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